Gameday : Week 0 Prairie View A&M @ Rice

​I remember waking up on Saturdays, it was as if there was an eerie silence about everywhere you walked. You would see your teammates, and no matter how close you were, a head nod was all that you could do. It was as if there were no noise at all, you could walk and hear the wind blowing through the trees, engines running on the cars passing by. But at the same time there was a death metal concert going on in your head, gunfire, a shit ton of bass, the anticipation building over the war you were about to stroll right into. As a college athlete there was nothing that could replace that feeling. Today, we are blessed to see the beginning of another football season! Blessed to get to watch as fans of the greatest game ever played in America on August 25th 2018! This 2018-19 College football season is officially underway, and even though this isn’t a Top 25 matchup, there will be helmets crashing, hot dogs consumed, beer… tons of beer, cheerleaders, top performing marching bands, coaches yelling, fans cheering, mascots mean mugging another, but most importantly today.. there will be a team that goes home a Loser, and that goes home a Winner!

​Both teams walk in with something in common, which makes this match-up completely unpredictable. The Rice Owls and the Prairie View A&M Panthers have a coach making his Head Coaching Debut tonight. Coach Eric Dooley for PVA&M and Coach Mike Bloomgren for Rice have been graduate assistants, they have been position coaches, they’ve coordinated successful offenses, led teams to Bowl Games, been very successful, but now they are running the show, each finally getting the opportunity to gain the respect they’ve put in so many hours to get.

What's Important

I think as much as this game is about the players, and what they do on the field, I’m going to put today’s matchup on the coaches. I think the players are somewhat irrelevant, as much as they are everything. Today’s Coach that gets to put their first career “W” on their resume as Head Coach will be determined by that coach. As far as the Owls go, I feel that will be their biggest weakness. In press conferences this week HC Mike Bloomgren has mentioned that they have not named a starting QB yet, that he plans on beating the odds of playing both QBs in this game. I think this strategy is horrible, and screams dissention within the ranks not on the field between QBs, but in the office between a HC and an Offensive Coordinator. While Bloomgren was a very successful OC, leading Stanford to several winning seasons, his current OC Jerry Mack was very successful HC at North Carolina Central University. It hasn’t been said but I am willing to bet they both have chosen their starting QB, but they have not both chosen the same QB.

There is a reason why planning on going with both QBs never works out. In college football there is crucial element called momentum. And the problem with playing both QBs is that you never know when one is beginning to find his momentum, and the other is not. You take one out without knowing if the next drive he was going to complete the pass your cold-armed quarterback coming off the bench couldn’t quite make. I think it is a mistake to go into week one without naming a starting QB.

With that being said...

I am willing to go out on a limb and say, PVA&M has a chance to upset Rice today. They seem to have the opposite problem. They have a starting QB, they have an OC in Ted White that can put points on the board. If they can put enough on early, I think HC Bloomgren will go home with an L today and hopefully learn an important lesson…Be Humble and let your OC coordinate the offense.